The present invention related generally to vehicle service systems having a computer configured to receive information to be utilized in performing a vehicle service, and more particularly, to a vehicle wheel alignment system having computers configured to utilize wireless communications protocols to identify and communicate with a variety of proximally located external devices for the purpose of establishing communication links.
Traditional vehicle wheel alignment systems, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,381,548 to Grossman et al., herein incorporated by reference, utilize a computing device, typically a general purpose or IBM-PC compatible computer, configured with wheel alignment software, which is connected to one or more vehicle wheel alignment angle sensors. The computing device is configured with software to compute angular relationships of the vehicle wheel, as is described in U.S. Reissue Pat. No. 33,144 to Hunter, et al. herein incorporated by reference, and typically is in communication with a variety of conventional input and output devices, such as keyboards, pointing devices, printers, displays, and audio components. Traditional vehicle wheel alignment sensors comprise angle transducers, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,489,983 to McClenahan et al., herein incorporated by reference, which are mounted to the wheels of a vehicle undergoing an alignment service, but may comprise camera systems, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,870,315 to January, herein incorporated by reference, designed to observe either the wheels themselves or targets mounted to the wheels, and to generate images from which alignment angles may be determined by the computing device.
In prior art wheel alignment systems, the individual wheel alignment sensors are connected to the computing device by means of data communication cables. As the wheel alignment systems evolved, the data communication cables have been replaced by wireless communications technologies such as infrared and radio-frequency communication links, wherein the computing device serves as a controller, transmitting instructions to the individual wheel alignment sensors, and receiving wheel alignment information in response. To avoid conflicting communications, individual wireless wheel alignment sensors employ a passive communications system which transmits information to the computing device only in response to specific instructions received therefrom.
In addition to requiring information from individual wheel alignment sensors, a wheel alignment system or other vehicle service system computing device requires information identifying the type of sensors which it is utilizing, information related to the vehicle undergoing service, and information identifying the manner and format of any output provided to the operator or technician. These various pieces of information are traditionally entered into the computing device manually, via the conventional input devices such as the keyboard or mouse.
Emerging wireless communication technology, such as the Bluetooth wireless communications protocol, enables devices and appliances to interconnect in the form of a mobile and amorphous network capable of continually reconfiguring as elements are added and removed. Bluetooth technology allows easy connection between devices and components, such as smart handheld devices and stand-alone equipment (i.e. general purpose computers to peripherals, etc) without the restrictions of cables or wires. Devices employing the Bluetooth communications protocol can connect with multiple similarly configured devices located within a close proximity, forming a high-speed data network. The Bluetooth communications protocols include user authentication, data encryption and data hopping facilities to protect privacy and to automatically prevent signal interference and loss. These protocols enable automatic synchronization between Bluetooth-enabled devices.
As manual entry of information can be time consuming and repetitive, it would be advantageous to provide a vehicle wheel alignment system wherein individual components were capable of automatically accessing and communicating with a wireless micro-network including a variety of devices located in proximity to the wheel alignment or vehicle service system, and for automatically acquiring from or delivering to, these devices at least a portion of the information required to complete a vehicle wheel alignment or vehicle service procedure.